News24 reports that the SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) has called on parents and affected communities to urgently convene summits to deal with violence, the availability of drugs and substance abuse in schools.  

Sadtu general secretary Mugwena Maluleke made the call after a high school pupil was arrested on Monday evening in Dobsonville, Soweto, hours after he allegedly stabbed three fellow pupils, leaving one dead, outside Forest High School in Turffontein, Johannesburg.  He indicated that the union was engaging with the Department of Basic Education and the SA Council for Educators to deal with violence in our schools and went on to say:  "The DBE must engage psycho-social professionals to help in the early identification of this behaviour, so that affected pupils can be assisted.  The department must seriously partner with the SAPS in enforcing the search for weapons that are brought into our schools.  The department must also, with urgency, engage with everyone to recurriculate Life Orientation to help build pupils' resilience."  The union also urged social workers to visit schools and work with school-based support teams to pro-actively tackle signs of aggression and other related bevaviour.  Parents were also urged to watch out for such signs in their children to avoid a similar tragedy.

• Read the full original of Ntwaagae Seleka’s report in the above regard at News24

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